Southern California -- this just in

Bid to overturn L.A. pot shop ban qualifies for ballot

Activists seeking to repeal a ban on medical
marijuana outlets in Los Angeles have secured enough verified signatures to place their measure on the ballot, City Clerk June Lagmay said Monday.

Backers of medical marijuana dispensaries needed 27,425 valid signatures for their
measure to qualify. Lagmay said a statistical sampling of the
signatures showed that activists had turned in 110% of the amount needed.

The council now
has the option of repealing its ordinance, calling a special election or
placing the measure on the ballot in the March 5 election, when voters will choose
a mayor, city controller, city attorney and eight council members. The third scenario is currently considered the most likely.

Councilman José Huizar spearheaded passage of the ordinance, which prohibits
the sale of cannabis but allows groups of three people or fewer to
cultivate and share the drug. Implementation of that ordinance was put on hold when activists turned in roughly 49,000 signatures seeking to overturn it.

The referendum is backed by several
groups, including the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local
770, which started unionizing dispensary workers earlier this year,
and the Greater Los Angeles Collective Alliance, an association of
dispensary operators who registered with the city before a moratorium
on new pot shops was enacted in 2007.

Yami Bolanos, president of the Greater Los Angeles
Collectives Alliance, said she hopes the City Council will avoid an election
campaign by rescinding its ordinance and passing a new one that allows the
city's oldest dispensaries to remain open.

"We are prepared to go to the ballot if that's what
we need to do," she said. "But we'd rather deal with them here and
now. It would be much simpler for everyone involved."

Photo: Sharon Lee, a city operations manager,
looks over petitions to repeal a ban on medical marijuana outlets at the L.A. city clerk's office last month. Activists secured enough signatures to
place the measure on the ballot. Credit: Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times